Can WHM survive on pure healing alone? (Looking into 4.0)

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Let's say that 4.0 has just hit.

SCH still has heavy mitigation, strong burst healing power and a fairy to help dps.

AST still has cards (that probably has been further improved on), decent mitigation and heavy heals/regens.

WHM has more raw heals. Maybe another regen of sorts, maybe another aoe heal, some more dps spells.

Can WHM really survive off of just this?
SCH and AST are not weak healers. They're extremely strong and proficient in their healing job just as much as a WHM is. The difference then comes from the fact that they offer more than just their healing.

When the stronger heals aren't needed, you can help dps with cards, or safely dps with SCH. With WHM, you simply don't have the MP to consistently offer dps. Other than your dps, you have nothing else to offer to the raid. No form of buff or utility.

Once more healers come out, with more utility to offer to groups, and stronger ways to heal, I fear WHM will fade into obscurity.

At the same time I fear for homogenization. I don't want WHm to get some huge utility gimmick just because the others have one. I simply don't think decent aoe mitigation and some small utility should be exclusive to one healer. Just like huge aoe healing is not exclusive to WHM (SCH indom). The role of a healer is healing and support. It's currently missing one of those core functions entirely.

What do you expect SE to do with WHM to keep them relevant in a role that's offering increasingly better support skills?

[bswpayton]

white mage is amazing I dont think it will ever fade

[Exiled_Tonberry]

white mage is amazing I dont think it will ever fade

Care to elaborate? I really want to have an actual discussion on this.
What makes WHm so amazing in the competition of healers currently? How do you feel about them offering no support in a support heavy role.

I know this topic on WHM is done to death and you're all probably sick and tired of it, but I really want to get the general opinion on the state of WHM right now, and if it's the right path they're taking with the healer.
Can it really survive offering only one aspect of the healing role?

[Jonnycbad]

I think they try to give each job an answer to something it lacked in 3.0. SCH had a ground AoE so WHM got Asylum. WHM lacked an oGCD on short recast like Lustrate, so they got Tetragrammaton. SCH lacked a decent nuke and had poorer single target dps, so they got Broil. SCH also lacked a decent AoE heal other than Succor so they got Emergency Tactics and Indomitability. That being said, I'm sure WHM will get some more mitigation abilities. Maybe an oGCD that gives everyone in range 5% damage resistance for 5 seconds.

[HyperiusUltima]

It is capable. People, especially raid groups, would prioritize AST over WHM only because they've got a more diverse moveset and buffs that help the entire raid. White Mage itself is there to keep a raid alive, and one of its main things is raw healing. Asylum as a Regen bubble, Tetra as a instant heal for burst healing(I.e. A11 Optical Sight Prey), and Benediction still being one of the biggest lifesavers in the game next to Hallowed Ground. 4.0 I expect them to improve more on their moveset and perhaps give them a few traits to stand out a little themselves.

[bswpayton]

well i must admit im still in arr content, but ive done up to wanderer's palace, and my scholar is only level 46, whm level 56, I havent played astro yet , but I mean the reason scholar but ive ran alot of dungeons in my short time of playing the game and Id say that each healer seems to be equal , my main thing with whm for me is the mp issue that ive seen in other threads, I need to have my mp at least 75 percent before a boss pull where as with scholar with the fairy doing a good bit of healing I can have like half mp and be fine , but im fairly new but whm is my fav class , there is another thread saying that they would like to be able to use stone skin two in battle and maybe that would help with some of the mitigation

[ErdrickLoto]

There's two main ideas I can think of to improve WHM's situation:

1) Make it the main DPS healer, with MP regeneration to match. The larger heals of WHM make it more suitable to fulfill such a task, being able to heal the tank more reliably. Of course, doing so places it in direct competition with SCH, which promotes from a DPS class, and as such has all of its moves, and a fairy that lets it heal and DPS at the same time. Maybe removing Cleric Stance as a cross-class for SCH could help, but idk.

2) Switch it and SCH's roles - have SCH be the "regen" healer, with its fairies being the regen, and WHM having shields outside of Stoneskin. It sounds better to me, though it runs the risk of angering the player base and/or the nostalgia junkies, since WHM wasn't a barrier healer before.

[bswpayton]

I liked your first point , main dps healer , would it be to over powered if they just removed cleric and put the damage somewhere in the middle of what is when ur not in cleric and what it would be with it on , I def feel like its easier to be i cleric as a scholar than it is whm simply cause u get free heals, sometimes with whm its best to not even switch at all and just simply heal

[Atoli]

As boring and basic as WHM is, I doubt it will be in danger anytime soon.
The other classes just can't compete with the additional safety of all the raw healing power and traits a WHM has,
so WHM will always be the "safety first" healer and that's fine.
Moving on to using the more gimmicky healers once surviving isn't the only issue anymore and optimizing things is the focus
does not mean WHM drops into obscurity, it just means it gets priorized early in the patch's life and less later on.

[Minseo]

Frankly, yes.

Almost always you see WHM in progression groups. Sure, once you have the fight on farm you can bring in an AST, but WHM offers this extremely good safety net in case things go wrong (which in progression they typically do.) Cure III is an incredibly powerful aoe heal that is overlooked due to lack of coordination imo. Sure, support is lacking, but its nice for learning. The solo-heal ability is also really good for getting extra dps out of your co-healer. Ast can solo heal too but it requires more effort and cooperation from the group than WHM.

The main issue I have with WHM is their accuracy requirements for ANY dps. AST and SCH both have dots that do not require accuracy, whereas WHM lacks both the accuracy exemption and the MP to recast if you miss. It's an unfortunate situation for all healers but WHM feels it the most. Other than that their MP regen is pretty bad yeah, but it's gotten a lot better with assize.

In terms of changes, I want shroud to have a longer duration, just a second or two, just to help improve our MP regen a bit more. In terms of support maybe just add a aoe defense boost for 10 seconds on an ogcd. They really don't need much, their position is the learning healer and nothing can remove them from that.